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Central Bank maintains repo rate at 3.75%

Central Bank maintains repo rate at 3.75%

The Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of Namibia has decided to keep the Repo rate unchanged at 3.75%, safeguarding the one-to-one link between the Namibia Dollar and the South African Rand.

Governor of the Bank of Namibia, Johannes Gawaxab said the rate remains appropriate to continue supporting domestic economic activity.

“Domestic economic activity slowed considerably in 2020 compared to 2019. Contractions were observed in key sectors such as tourism, wholesale and retail trade, mining,
manufacturing, construction, as well as transport and storage. The contraction was mainly due to the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Gawaxab said.

The domestic economy is estimated to have contracted by 7.3% in 2020, before returning to an expected moderate recovery of 2.6% in 2021.

Meanwhile, as at the 31 January 2021, the stock of international reserves stood at N$34.4 billion compared to N$29.9 billion recorded in December 2020. The increase in reserves was mainly due to SACU receipts. The latest amount of international reserves is estimated to cover 5.3 months of imports.


 

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Donald Matthys

Donald Matthys has been part of the media fraternity since 2015. He has been working at the Namibia Economist for the past three years mainly covering business, tourism and agriculture. Donald occasionally refers to himself as a theatre maker and has staged two theatre plays so far. Follow him on twitter at @zuleitmatthys